missnaut wrote:
Could be four outs - Carrots, Curnow, Yaz, Laidler.
Thornton, Ellard, Armfield all back?
Joseph? Need a tagger.
Carrots may be the only one to miss. The rest played out the game until the coaching box called time on our comeback. Bringing Ellard back this early is a risk IMO, and Armfield should not be rushed if there is still decent swelling around his knee.
Thornton would be a welcome addition to the forward setup in lieu of Walker (which is how it should be if we're being sensible), but the most important thing is to fix the disruption we've created in the back six.
Duigan needs to have a legitimate matchup or he is a liability until he is 100% fit and in form. Bower is not a forward; all of his instincts and attributes make him a fantastic CHB. Henderson is capable of being reliable at both ends, as is Laidler, and I'm glad we made the switch in the second half to Laidler up forward and Bower to defence.
We need to re-jig the current make-up of the side so that we are able to eliminate the reliance on Waite, who was getting run ragged by the shoddy delivery he was receiving and the fact the he was at times the only avenue through true CHF and the forward flanks.
Bring in Thornton, send Henderson forward and consider resting a player to inject someone like Kerr into the team. Have those three names pushing high up off HF as an outlet for our runners to receive from and we will open them right up. The defence will be fine with Laidler, Bower & Jamison manning the talls.
This week was an example of when Lachie should be sent forward; without being terrible he was poor in the 50/50s and he could have changed the dynamic up forward with his height and instincts for reacting to the play in an environment where his opponent has to pay him more mind than vice versa.
bluedog wrote:
missnaut wrote:
Could be four outs - Carrots, Curnow, Yaz, Laidler.
Throw in McLean.
Completely biased opinion noted. I was surrounded by people at the game who were giving McLean and Bower a bake, regularly when they had nothing to do with the play, such was their belief all mistakes came from them.
camelboy wrote:
We got handed a lesson today by Essendon*. Some of the earlier comments in this thread show how far we all got ahead of ourselves.
It will be a great test of our grit and determination next week. Mightn't be a bad idea to head to Perth a day earlier and get out of the bubble, I reckon.
Don't agree. Cards didn't fall our way today and we switched off. That'll switch us back on, and we shouldn't wind up with 4 injuries on the day again.
This is still a game we should be winning, at a ground which suits us.